Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory (Switch, PS4, XBOne)

[Glen-i]

The demo for this came out yesterday. It's basically the next Theatrhythm game (Done by indieszero, who did the other Theatrhythm games) and it's looking very promising.

Includes a local co-op mode, online 2 player VS battles and an 8-player mode exclusively for the Switch version (Local Wireless only). Oh, and because it's Kingdom Hearts, you just know that there's going to be some kind of plot to tie it up with all the other games.

Theatrhythm Curtain Call was one of the best games on the 3DS, so I'm very much looking forward to this.
It comes out November 13th over here.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Glen-i

[Londragon]

@Glen-i I'm just posting my Let's Play of the demo of KH: Melody of Memory.  I loved the Theatrhythm game on the 3DS, but this feels different, in a bad way for me.  The game feels slower, and the jumping mechanic doesn't feel timed, and it's difficult to know when to jump with a good accuracy.  Disappointed.

[Londragon]

For anyone who can't be bothered to download the demo.

 

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Londragon said:

@Glen-i I'm just posting my Let's Play of the demo of KH: Melody of Memory.  I loved the Theatrhythm game on the 3DS, but this feels different, in a bad way for me.  The game feels slower, and the jumping mechanic doesn't feel timed, and it's difficult to know when to jump with a good accuracy.  Disappointed.

I'm not sure where you're getting that impression, because the jumps are definitely timed to the beat. Jump attacks are always done to the rhythm of the song. You can see what I mean at the end of this post I did.

(Ignore the sloppy opening)

It's a bit visually cluttered at times, granted, but after a while I started to get an idea of when to jump. It's the old "Rhythm Heaven" addage that ignoring the visuals will keep you focused. Simply put, you jump 1 beat before you attack.

Then again, maybe you're having issues with visual lag? If you find yourself constantly being too early or late, it might be worth going to the settings and fiddling with the BGM Timing option.

(Wait, you went straight from Beginner to Proud Difficulty? That was... Brave.)

Edited October 16, 2020 by Glen-i

[Londragon]

I'm not sure where you're getting that impression, because the jumps are definitely timed to the beat. Jump attacks are always done to the rhythm of the song.

 

It's a bit visually cluttered at times, granted, but after a while I started to get an idea of when to jump. It's the old "Rhythm Heaven" addage that ignoring the visuals will keep you focused. Simply put, you jump 1 beat before you attack.

 

(Wait, you went straight from Beginner to Proud Difficulty? That was... Brave.)

 

Yeah, I was using visual cues, and the jump bar is/doesn’t feel like it’s in the right place. For me, the jump bar looks like it’s a whole beat after when it should be, and by that time I should be swinging in mid-air. You basically have to jump over the bar and not jump when you reach it. I find that incredibly off-putting, when he attack is co-ordinated with an ever decreasing circle to time the attack, I found it odd that they didn’t provide an additional timing cue when to jump. It’s even more evident that the shadow of the jump bar is under it, and that feels like the time to jump when you reach the shadow, ie the base of it, but it’s not, I just can’t get around it, and jump a beat too late.

 

It is cluttered, but I suppose with extra play time your eyes adjust where to look. It feels, at first anyway, like there’s too much going on, and the superfluous enemies that die to a ‘crystal shard’ x button attack, just clutter even further.

 

Proud difficulty did in fact own me, [emoji23]

[Glen-i]

3 hours ago, Londragon said:

 

Yeah, I was using visual cues, and the jump bar is/doesn’t feel like it’s in the right place. For me, the jump bar looks like it’s a whole beat after when it should be, and by that time I should be swinging in mid-air. You basically have to jump over the bar and not jump when you reach it. I find that incredibly off-putting, when he attack is co-ordinated with an ever decreasing circle to time the attack, I found it odd that they didn’t provide an additional timing cue when to jump. It’s even more evident that the shadow of the jump bar is under it, and that feels like the time to jump when you reach the shadow, ie the base of it, but it’s not, I just can’t get around it, and jump a beat too late.

 

It is cluttered, but I suppose with extra play time your eyes adjust where to look. It feels, at first anyway, like there’s too much going on, and the superfluous enemies that die to a ‘crystal shard’ x button attack, just clutter even further.

 

Proud difficulty did in fact own me,

It's worth noting that when it comes to jumps, you don't need to be spot on with the actual jump. As long as it's good enough to get over enemy attacks, or to put yourself in the air to hit an enemy, you'll get an excellent for it. The arrow symbol is basically how you know there's a jump coming, but try to get more into the rhythm for when you should press it.

I do agree with you about the crystal attacks though. Having jump on 'B' while the Crystal attack is on 'X' is a bit awkward. I hear that the PlayStation version actually has a better button layout in that regard, (Circle = Jump, Triangle = Crystal) which is a tad annoying.

Wave of Darkness on Proud is totally kicking me around, so don't feel bad. I'm sure the full game will let you build your team up to last longer on the higher difficulties. It's what I like about Theatrthythm.

Anyway, seeing as you normally have a kid to mess around with, have you tried the co-op yet? There's 2 extra songs there.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Glen-i

[Londragon]

Anyway, seeing as you normally have a kid to mess around with, have you tried the co-op yet? There's 2 extra songs there.

I haven’t tried co-op yet, but will try to get around to it this weekend. If I can prise him off of Borderlands and Armello that is.

[Hero-of-Time]

My copy arrived early this morning and I've pretty much just cabbaged in front of the TV and played it all day. 

Absolutely loved it. It's a true love letter to the fans of the series, with lots of iconic music pieces on offer and recaps of bits of the story from all the mainline entries. 

I like how they included a few stages for Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days and ReCoded. There was some great music in each of these games and I'm happy to see them represented here, even if it's only a few levels. Lord of the Castle, The 13th Struggle, Another Side, Fight and Away and No More Bugs!! are top tier tunes.

Most of the songs that have been chosen for the game are fantastic, with only a few out of the 150 on offer falling a little flat. I'm very happy to see a few Disney songs as part of the package. Outside of a handful of examples, Disney music has mostly been kept out of the KH games and so it's nice to see a few songs pop up here. I've played Let It Go a fair few times now. In fact, it was the first song that I completed on the hardest difficulty. I couldn't stop myself. It was great to see that they used the footage from Kingdom Hearts III when Elsa sang the whole song whilst Sora just looked on in wonder. 

I can see why they didn't call this Theatrhythm. I love the game to bits but it does lack customization and strategy that those games had. All that this really has in common with them is that it's a rhythm game made by S-E.

I was happy with the little bit of story at the end of the game. It looks to nicely set up the next chapter of the KH saga. Hopefully we won't have to wait 15 years for it to arrive.

The credits may have rolled but there's still a crazy amount to do. I've platinumed all the KH games and want to try and get the platinum on this one as well. It means doing things like completing all 150 songs on all 3 difficulty levels, playing perfectly (no missed notes) on 50 stages on each difficulty, levelling up the gang to their max levels and using Mickey Mouse on my team for an hour. Yup, plenty to keep me busy in between other games.

Man, I love this series.  @Beast you like Disney and Kingdom Hearts, right? Any interest in this game? Here's a little taste for you.

 

[Glen-i]

I'm pretty much going through the same thing, doing every song on every difficulty. Almost done them all on Beginner. Although I still don't have the materials to unlock Beauty and the Beast.

If they pull some DLC with other Disney Songs, I probably won't be able to resist...

[Hero-of-Time]

4 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

I'm pretty much going through the same thing, doing every song on every difficulty. Almost done them all on Beginner. Although I still don't have the materials to unlock Beauty and the Beast.

I had to synthesize them. I was missing around 25 and so I just made some, making sure to use the ingredient that makes it so you get more items from the finished product. I think the Moogle needs to be level 6 or 7 for you to be able to use the ingredient. Although, seeing as you finished the game, he's probably already max level, especially if you were using double exp items every time you crafted something.

[Glen-i]

34 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I had to synthesize them. I was missing around 25 and so I just made some, making sure to use the ingredient that makes it so you get more items from the finished product. I think the Moogle needs to be level 6 or 7 for you to be able to use the ingredient. Although, seeing as you finished the game, he's probably already max level, especially if you were using double exp items every time you crafted something.

Yeah, I just did, now I've finished each song on Beginner.

I do wish there was a bit more customisation to party layout. Set teams gets the job done, but I feel like they could've allowed some mix and match considering there's only 12 characters. It also would've been nice if they actually had some distinct abilities as it's all just cosmetic. The best team will inevitably be the one with the highest total HP/Def, (Strength is nowhere near as useful) and there'll be no point using anyone else.

But the gameplay is still solid, and I can see myself wasting a lot of time chasing Proud mode!

Oh, and it is funny to think that the two songs from Theatrhythm: Curtain Call that got reused in a different game are One-Winged Angel (expected) and TWEWY's Calling of all things!

Anyway, I just learned that XBox Game Pass has the KH collection, so I think it's about time I actually play Birth By Sleep. That and III are the only ones I haven't played by this point.

Edited December 28, 2020 by Glen-i

[Beast]

My copy arrived early this morning and I've pretty much just cabbaged in front of the TV and played it all day. 

Absolutely loved it. It's a true love letter to the fans of the series, with lots of iconic music pieces on offer and recaps of bits of the story from all the mainline entries. 
I like how they included a few stages for Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days and ReCoded. There was some great music in each of these games and I'm happy to see them represented here, even if it's only a few levels. Lord of the Castle, The 13th Struggle, Another Side, Fight and Away and No More Bugs!! are top tier tunes.
Most of the songs that have been chosen for the game are fantastic, with only a few out of the 150 on offer falling a little flat. I'm very happy to see a few Disney songs as part of the package. Outside of a handful of examples, Disney music has mostly been kept out of the KH games and so it's nice to see a few songs pop up here. I've played Let It Go a fair few times now. In fact, it was the first song that I completed on the hardest difficulty. I couldn't stop myself. It was great to see that they used the footage from Kingdom Hearts III when Elsa sang the whole song whilst Sora just looked on in wonder. 
I can see why they didn't call this Theatrhythm. I love the game to bits but it does lack customization and strategy that those games had. All that this really has in common with them is that it's a rhythm game made by S-E.
I was happy with the little bit of story at the end of the game. It looks to nicely set up the next chapter of the KH saga. Hopefully we won't have to wait 15 years for it to arrive.
The credits may have rolled but there's still a crazy amount to do. I've platinumed all the KH games and want to try and get the platinum on this one as well. It means doing things like completing all 150 songs on all 3 difficulty levels, playing perfectly (no missed notes) on 50 stages on each difficulty, levelling up the gang to their max levels and using Mickey Mouse on my team for an hour. Yup, plenty to keep me busy in between other games.
Man, I love this series. [emoji3] [mention=3591]Beast[/mention] you like Disney and Kingdom Hearts, right? Any interest in this game? Here's a little taste for you.
 

I've been wanting this so badly since it's announcement! Now my only trouble is what to buy it for: Switch or PS4.

I have all of the Kingdom Hearts games on the PS4 BUUUUT I love the fact I could take the game anywhere I wanted... [emoji23]

[Glen-i]

3 hours ago, Beast said:

I've been wanting this so badly since it's announcement! Now my only trouble is what to buy it for: Switch or PS4.

I have all of the Kingdom Hearts games on the PS4 BUUUUT I love the fact I could take the game anywhere I wanted...

For what it's worth, the Switch version has an exclusive 8-player mode if you actually have friends to play it with locally. (That mode isn't online, unfortunately)

Apart from that, there's barely any difference. There's no massive advantage outside of Trophy support. (The game already has "feats" which function as the same thing, anyway)

[Beast]

3 hours ago, Glen-i said:

For what it's worth, the Switch version has an exclusive 8-player mode if you actually have friends to play it with locally. (That mode isn't online, unfortunately)

Apart from that, there's barely any difference. There's no massive advantage outside of Trophy support. (The game already has "feats" which function as the same thing, anyway)

I don't have anyone who likes Kingdom Hearts locally so PS4 it is! It makes sense, really, because I own all of them on PS4 so I may as well complete it on it too. 

[Hero-of-Time]

21 minutes ago, Beast said:

I don't have anyone who likes Kingdom Hearts locally so PS4 it is! It makes sense, really, because I own all of them on PS4 so I may as well complete it on it too. 

Even if the game didn't have trophy support I would have gone with the PS4 version. For me, Kingdom Hearts will always be a PlayStation franchise.

I put a little bit of time into the game yesterday (I'm juggling playing this, Yakuza and Mario Galaxy) and managed to unlock all of the songs. I needed to complete around 30 missions in order to access the final area which then gave me my final songs.

My next task is to finish the 30 or so songs that I haven't played yet and repeat a song 10 times. After that, I can then switch the difficulty to standard and start my journey through the 150 songs again....

[Glen-i]

2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

My next task is to finish the 30 or so songs that I haven't played yet and repeat a song 10 times. After that, I can then switch the difficulty to standard and start my journey through the 150 songs again....

I mean, if you're going for all the trophies, you'll probably have to pull off some Full Chains on Proud difficulty, so chances are, you'll end up doing that one without even aiming for it.

[Hero-of-Time]

I thought that but then figured if I cocked up a run then I would just hit restart. My characters are nearly level 90 so it's not like I would be needing the experience points.

[Dcubed]

8 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Even if the game didn't have trophy support I would have gone with the PS4 version. For me, Kingdom Hearts will always be a PlayStation franchise.

I put a little bit of time into the game yesterday (I'm juggling playing this, Yakuza and Mario Galaxy) and managed to unlock all of the songs. I needed to complete around 30 missions in order to access the final area which then gave me my final songs.

My next task is to finish the 30 or so songs that I haven't played yet and repeat a song 10 times. After that, I can then switch the difficulty to standard and start my journey through the 150 songs again....

Kind of funny you still feel that way considering that half of the series was (until recently) exclusive to Nintendo platforms.

It’s still really stupid that they haven’t ported the HD remasters onto Switch yet (hell, even KH3 is very possible; going by DQ11’s successful transition).  Hell, even Xbox has them all!

Hopefully it happens now that we have MoM on Switch.

[Hero-of-Time]

The series was born on PlayStation and the more meaningful games in the franchise (KH, KH2, BBB and the superior version of CoM) were exclusive to PS platforms. 

I feel the same way about the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Monster Hunter, Crash Bandicoot, Yakuza, Tomb Raider etc. All multiplatform titles now but ones that I will always associate with the PlayStation platform.

Final Fantasy is the same, the only difference being that it was originally on Nintendo but seeing as my first exposure to it was on the PSOne, it makes sense why I feel this way towards it.

[Glen-i]

13 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The series was born on PlayStation and the more meaningful games in the franchise (KH, KH2, BBB and the superior version of CoM) were exclusive to PS platforms. 

That's big talk. The GBA one is my favourite game in the series, and I don't have high expectations for that to translate well to full 3D gameplay. Trying to juggle moving Sora, navigating your deck and controlling the camera sounds like a nightmare.

And having to throw in a Z axis on top of that doesn't sound great.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Glen-i

[Beast]

Kind of funny you still feel that way considering that half of the series was (until recently) exclusive to Nintendo platforms.
It’s still really stupid that they haven’t ported the HD remasters onto Switch yet (hell, even KH3 is very possible; going by DQ11’s successful transition).  Hell, even Xbox has them all!
Hopefully it happens now that we have MoM on Switch.

If this happened, I would cry tears of joy. Having Kingdom Hearts with me on the go would be amazing!

[Hero-of-Time]

I took a break from this to concentrate on Yakuza but with that now done, I once again started working my way towards the platinum trophy.

I decided to tackle the Vs mode yesterday evening. I needed to reach the platinum rank (highest in the game) and beat 20 opponents. Man, the AI gets tough as you progress through the ranks. They throw all kinds of things at you, like enemies becoming invisible, notes going in wrong places and timings needing to be perfect. Some of these things come at you two at a time.

There was a stage I was stuck on and I kept restarting it if I knew my score was too low. The AI had consistently been getting around the same score for about 10 turns now and I figured I needed to smash that number in order to win. It took a while but I finally managed to go above and beyond the score the AI was getting only to see that this one time the AI had also smashed his previous score...as well as mine! I was furious. I felt really robbed.  

I took a break and when I came back I did eventually reach the platinum rank. It did prove though that there was a lot of luck when it came to the Vs mode, especially with the power ups you recieved and got dished out at you.

I'm still not even sure if I can achieve the platinum trophy on this. Completing 50 songs on Proud difficulty without missing a note is going to be VERY tough for   me.

[Glen-i]

See, maybe I've just played too much Rhythm Heaven, but I kinda breezed through VS Mode to Platinum 1. There was an absolutely hilarious moment where that trick that makes enemies slam against the screen activated during a note heavy section and there was a constant barrage of enemies flying toward the screen. It was hard not to burst out laughing! I'd share it here, but can't get a reliable connection.

But even I have to admit that full chaining 50 proud songs is going to be absolute hell! Those songs can get absolutely ridiculous. (One of the feats requires a full chain on every proud song, that might be my limit)

Edited January 14, 2021 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

Luckily there isn't a trophy tied to that feat. If there was, I wouldn't bother with attempting to go for the platinum,

[Hero-of-Time]

I managed to pull it off!

Platinum is on the cards now as the only trophy left to unlock is to kill 100,000 enemies. Crazy thing is that I've only just this moment killed 50,000. It's going to be a hell of a grind to kill the rest of them.